Surgical bandage.



E. M. POND.

SURGIGAL BANDAGE.

APPLICATION FILED 00T. 1a, 1909.

Patented Nov, 19, w12

5 mm Moz v 5am@ ,@MTM 3 t AG terial such as rubber,

EDMUNDHMORSE POND; or RU'rLAND, VERMONT.

SURGICAL BANDAGE.

Specification of LettersiPatent.

Patented N ov. 19, 1912.

Application filed October 18, 1909. i Serial No. 523,218.

To all 'whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known -thatI,EDMUND MORSE POND, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at Rutland, county of Rutland, State of Vermont, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Surgical Bandages, ofwhich the following is a speciiication.

My invention relates to a composition of materials and arrangementthereof for use as a surgical bandage and a dressing, and morespecifically consists of an' improvement in certain directions upon theinvention disclosed in Letters Patent No. 974,294, dated Nov. 1, 1910.In said Letters Patent I. de-

scribe a mixture of gelatin and glycerin with waterproof backing, thelimiting proportion of the glycerin being 80% of the compound. Thislimit was established because if the proportion of glycerin wereincreased above that percentage the compound would become so soft thatit would be impracticable to handle it commercially. The medicinaleffect of the compound increases with the quantity of glycerin, but theabove stated practical consideration limited the proportion of glycerinwhich could be used.

I have now discovered that by incorporating in the compound a suitableretaining medium, theproportion of glycerin can be increased up to andas high as 90% of the compound without rendering the resulting articletoo soft for practical use Aand that the use of such retaining medium isbeneficial with compounds having less than 80 per cent. of glycerin.

.The preferred arrangement of material embodying my invent-ion isillustrated in the accompanying sheet of drawings, in which:

Figure l is a plan view of a portion of my improved bandage withportions of each layer broken away. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal crossVsection of the structure shown in Fig. 1.

Throughout the drawings like reference numbers indicate like parts.

1 lrepresents a backing of liquid-tight maoiled silk, or oiled paper' 2represents the compound of gelatin and glycerin or equivalent materials;and 3 is an embedded layer 0f gauze or other textile material which maybe used as eX- plained in my allowed application above referred to. Sofar described, the construction is the same as that disclosed in my saidallowed application. I find, however, that if'I incorporate with thecompound of glycerin or gelatin or equivalent compound of healingmaterials of high solubility a quantityY of loose highly absorbentmaterial serving as a retaining medium such as a light film or sheet ofcotton wadding or' similar fiocculent fibrous material, or any fine drypowder such as a very fine clay, the softness or iiuidity of thecompound at ordinary atmospheric temperatures is reduced to a point suchthat the resultant structure can be handled practically andcommercially. In the drawing, 4 represents a layer of such cotton waddinor equivalent material. By cotton wad ing I mean a sheet of cottonfibers superposed but not interwoven, forming a thin, loose sheet ofintermingled fibers of little strength but considerable absorptivepower. 'The fibers of such material tend to absorb moisture from thesoluble material, separate,` and distribute themselves evenly throughoutthe body of said material, and preventit from running as a liquid. atthe temperature of the human body. Such a retaining medium may be usedalone, or it may be used with the finely powdered material indicated bythe dots 5, 5, or said linely powdered material may be used alone andthe fibrous retaining medium dispensed with. As such finely powderedmaterlal I may use a fine dry clay, and I may employ as much in quantityof this as equals ap roximately 25 per cent. by weight of the gycerinand gelatin composition. As a specific arrangement of the abovedescribed elements which I have found advantageous in an extensivegeneral and hospital practice I may mention the following. I take alayer of waxed paper waxed on one side only. To this I apply on theunwaxed side ahalf layer yof ordinary commercial cotton wadding. To thisis added a` layer of coarse gauze the meshes of whichl allow thetreating material to pass through readily to the wadding. This treatingmaterial, a mixture of glycerin, gelatinand clay in solution andsuspension in water, is then spread on nearly at the boiling point in alarge body and thoroughly saturates and assimilates the lfibrousmaterial forming a heavy inner coating on the waxed paper in andthroughout which coating body the gauze and wadding is embedded anddisseminated. In preparing this solution I use about 40 per cent. byweight of water,

uted commercially and can be handled Withdries out leaving the glycerin,gelatin, clay and any special medication which may be used n situ. Thepurpose of leaving one side of the paper unvvaxedv is to permit it toadhere more closely to the glycerin and gelatin body, so that it Willnot peel o in handling. Such a compound remains exible at atmospherictemperatures, becomes semi-liquid and absorbable at normal bodytemperature, but will not run even if the body temperature goes -up to105 Fahr.

To facilitate the handling of the completed article, I may put a facingsheet which is of Waterproof material such as oiled paper upon the otherside of the structure, said facing sheet being removable by a simplepull at one end, stripping it from the body of the bandage.

In operation, the bandage composed of the Waterproof backing, thehealing compound of high solubility, the retaining medium and theWaterproof sheet is distribout in any Way damaging its structure. Whenit is lto be ap lied, the facin sheet 6 is pulled oli and t e bandageapp ied to the surface to be treated.

Having, therefore, described my invention, I claim:

1. A surgical bandage and dressing comprising in combination, aWaterproof backing, a compound of glycerin and gelatin, the former inexcess, and a retaining medium comprising loose bers of highly ab*sorbent material and a finely pulverized body. of absorbent particlesdisseminated throughout the mass.

2. A surgical bandage and dressing comprising in combination, aWaterproof backing, a compound of glycerin and gelatin, the former inexcess, and a retaining medium comprising co-arse gauze, a layer ofcotton wadding and a body of line clay disseminated throughout the mass.

3. A surgical bandage and dressing comprising in combination aWaterproof backlng, a compound of gelatin and glycerin, the latterconsisting of about 80 per cent. of the compound by Weight, a` layer ofteX- tile fabric embedded in the compound and a mass of'loose cottonWadding also incorporated in the compound as a retaining medium for thesame When rendered semiliqud by the heat of a body to which the compoundhas been applied.

Witnesses A. PARKER-SMITH,

M. G. CRAWFORD.

